At the mouth of the colossal beast's fossilized jaw, after several kicks failed to budge even the smallest tooth fossil, Yang Lin gave up on trying to break it with his bare hands.
He turned and went back to where he had left his backpack, retrieving an ice axe.
"I don't believe you can be harder than steel," he muttered.
Aimed at a vulnerable spot on the tooth fossil, Yang Lin raised the ice axe, crafted from fine steel, and brought it down heavily.
However, to his surprise, when the ice axe struck, the tooth fossil didn't break. Instead, sparks flew.
Looking at the sparks, Yang Lin was dumbfounded.
"It's been dead for tens of millions of years, and the fossil is still this hard. How tough must its bones have been in life? No wonder it could support such a massive body."
Sighing with emotion, he raised the ice axe again.
For the next few minutes, the sound of hammering echoed within the giant beast's maw.
Five minutes later, looking at the tooth fossil, which showed no signs of breakage, Yang Lin exhaled a long breath.
"Today, I'm going to wrestle with you. If I can't break it, I'll blow it apart."
With those words, Yang Lin retraced his steps.
By now, his parents were aware of his intentions.
"Son, if it's too difficult, let's just give up and think of another way."
"Yes, this fossil has been preserved perfectly for millions of years; it definitely won't be easy to break."
As they tried to dissuade him, Yang Lin pulled two items from his backpack.
When his father saw these items, his expression changed drastically.
"Where did you get these?"
Having been a soldier, he immediately recognized the detonators for breaking rocks and a packet of explosives in Yang Lin's hands.
"The people at the research station gave them to me, saying they could be used to blast through ice in special circumstances."
"I figured these could be used to blast off a portion of the tooth fossil."
After Yang Lin's explanation, his father nodded.
Possessing such items privately was illegal in Longguo.
"Do you even know how to use these, to just take them out so casually?"
"Isn't it just a matter of lighting it with a lighter? Do I need to know how to use it?"
Yang Lin asked, utterly bewildered by his father's question.
But as soon as he finished speaking, his father gave him a sharp slap.
"You dare to take these out without knowing anything, and you'd casually light them with a lighter?"
"If you make a mistake, you won't even be a speck of dust left."
"You go stand aside, let me handle it."
With that, his father took the detonators and explosives from him without further ado.
It was only then that Yang Lin remembered his father had retired from the military.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask, "By the way, Dad, what branch were you in during your service, and why did you retire?"
Hearing Yang Lin's question, his father paused, then became hesitant.
"Why ask about that? It's all in the past."
At this moment, his mother interjected softly:
"He was a mess hall cook. When the military commander inspected their company, he accidentally spilled a jar of salt into the dishes. The commander happened to eat that portion, and he was so overwhelmed by the salt that he was hospitalized."
"At the time, everyone in the entire military region thought the commander had been poisoned by enemy agents..."
Before his mother could finish, his father clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Don't listen to your mother's nonsense. I was a missile soldier."
"Right, and in their squad, he was in charge of… cracking eggs!"
"I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm going to set the explosives. You two find a place to hide."
His face flushed red with embarrassment, Yang Dad couldn't stand it any longer. He picked up the detonators and the explosives and walked towards the giant beast's maw.
Due to his leg injury, he limped as he walked. His back as he climbed into the beast's maw was a scene Yang Lin recalled from a familiar lesson.
However, at this moment, his father was holding not oranges, but explosives.
Ten minutes later, when Yang Dad crawled out of the giant beast's maw, Yang Lin immediately stepped forward to help him.
His father, however, shouted to run.
At this moment, none of the three dared to linger. They grabbed their things and retreated into the giant beast's cranial cavity.
Five minutes later, a thunderous boom echoed through the dim underground space.
Even though they had already retreated far away, Yang Lin could feel the powerful vibration emanating from the giant beast's maw.
He had expected only ordinary explosives, not realizing they would be so powerful.
It took a full seven to eight minutes for the vibration to gradually subside.
"There won't be any follow-up explosions, right, Dad?" Yang Lin asked uncertainly, looking into the still pitch-black darkness ahead.
"No, that small amount of explosives is only enough to blast rocks."
"That's good then."
After confirming there were no lingering dangers, Yang Lin reopened his flashlight and, step by step, walked towards the giant beast's maw.
When he reached the familiar area again, the scene before him made him heave a sigh of relief.
In the previously cavernous mouth, the neatly arranged tooth fossils had changed somewhat.
Although none had completely fallen out, several tooth fossils had been cracked by the blast.
After searching the ground, Yang Lin quickly found several fragments of varying sizes.
The largest piece was forty to fifty centimeters long, with a sharp, crescent-shaped edge, resembling a curved saber.
At a single glance, Yang Lin was captivated.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. If I had a bone knife like this when I was little, I could have shaved all the weeds within ten miles."
"If I take it back, polish it up, and add a handle, it would be incredibly cool."
Saying this, Yang Lin picked up the fossil fragment.
Besides this piece, he collected a few more fragments of decent size and quality and put them into his bag.
Fossils of these prehistoric giant beasts were destined to remain buried beneath the Arctic Ocean forever. All he could take were these small fragments.
After collecting most of the fragments, he lingered no longer and turned back to his parents.
With the giant whale's fossil fragments in hand, the next step was to prepare to leave.
After some discussion, Yang Lin ultimately decided to first test whether the giant whale's tooth fossils were functional.
However, before that, he suddenly remembered something: the system quest from before.
Because he had fainted upon touching the giant whale's eyeball fossil, he didn't know if the quest had been completed, nor what reward he had received.
Thinking this, he quickly opened the system panel, hoping to find some clues.
The moment the system panel opened, he immediately saw the related records.
As he read through it, his face lit up with joy.